Demand for lightweight accumulators is increasing, especially for mobile applications (e.g., aircraft, motor vehicles, etc.) where extra weight can reduce fuel efficiency. One example of a mobile application of an accumulator is in a hybrid powertrain for a vehicle. The term “Hybrid” generally refers to the combination of one or more conventional internal combustion engines with a secondary power system. The secondary power system typically serves the functions of receiving and storing excess energy produced by the engine and energy recovered from braking events, and redelivering this energy to supplement the engine when necessary. The secondary power system acts together with the engine to ensure that enough power is available to meet power demands, and any excess power is stored for later use. This allows the engine to operate more efficiently by running intermittently, and/or running within its most efficient power band more often.
Several forms of secondary power systems are known. Interest in hydraulic power systems as secondary systems continues to increase. Such systems typically include one or more hydraulic accumulators for energy storage and one or more hydraulic pumps, motors, or pump/motors for power transmission. Hydraulic accumulators operate on the principle that energy may be stored by compressing a gas. An accumulator's pressure vessel contains a captive charge of inert gas, typically nitrogen, which becomes compressed as a hydraulic pump pumps liquid into the vessel, or during regenerative braking processes. The compressed fluid, when released, may be used to drive a hydraulic motor to propel a vehicle, for example. Typically operating pressures for such systems may be between 3,000 psi to greater than 7,000 psi, for example.
As will be appreciated, since the accumulator stores energy developed by the engine or via regenerative braking processes, it plays an important role in achieving system efficiency. One type of accumulator that may be used is commonly referred to as a standard piston accumulator. In a standard piston accumulator, the hydraulic fluid is separated from the compressed gas by means of a piston which seals against the inner walls of a cylindrical pressure vessel and is free to move longitudinally as fluid enters and leaves and the gas compresses and expands.
The piston is typically made of a gas impermeable material, such as steel, that prevents the gas from mixing with the working fluid. Keeping the gas from mixing with the working fluid is desirable, especially in high pressure applications such as hydraulic hybrid systems, to maintain system efficiency and avoid issues related with removing the gas from the working fluid.
In order to maintain a sufficient seal, the dimensional tolerance at the interface between the piston and the inner wall of the cylinder is generally very close. Further, the pressure vessel typically must be extremely rigid and resistant to expansion near its center when pressurized, which would otherwise defeat the seal by widening the distance between the piston and cylinder wall. This has generally eliminated the consideration of composite materials for high pressure piston accumulator vessels like those used in a hybrid system, for example, as composite materials tend to expand significantly under pressure (e.g., about 1/10 of an inch diametrically for a 12 inch diameter vessel at 5,000 psi pressure). Furthermore, the need to assemble the cylinder with a piston inside traditionally requires that the cylinder have at least one removable end cap for use in assembly and repair, rather than the integral rounded ends that are more structurally desirable in efficiently meeting pressure containment demands with composite materials. Composite pressure vessels are not easily constructed with removable end caps.
As a result of the foregoing, standard piston accumulator vessels tend to be made of thick, high strength steel and are very heavy. Standard piston accumulators have a relatively high weight to energy storage ratio as compared to other types of accumulators (e.g., bladder-type accumulators), which makes them undesirable for mobile vehicular applications (as such increased weight would, for example, reduce fuel economy for the vehicle). Therefore, despite their potentially superior gas impermeability, conventional piston accumulators are largely impractical for vehicular applications.
Another known composite accumulator uses an aluminum liner for both the piston travel surface and main liner of the pressure vessel. This design eliminates the need to pressure balance a secondary liner (e.g. by pressurizing the space between the main and secondary liner), but suffers from low fatigue endurance. The low fatigue endurance is usually caused by the difficulty of getting the aluminum liner (or other thin metal liner) to properly load share with the composite. Without the addition of an autofrettage process, this type of accumulator will have exceptionally low fatigue life. With an autofrettage process, the liner will grow erratically along its length making an adequate piston seal on the trapped piston nearly impossible resulting in gas mixing with the working fluid.
As noted, a consideration for accumulators in hydraulic hybrid systems is repairability. As noted, composite bladder accumulators are difficult to construct with removable end caps that would allow repair/replacement of the bladder and/or seals. Thus, in the event of seal failure, the entire accumulator is inoperable and must be discarded. To the degree that lightweight composite accumulators have had low cycle requirements or have been used on equipment that replacement was acceptable (aircraft, military vehicles, etc.), the use of such non-repairable bladder accumulators has been an acceptable practice. Placing lightweight accumulators in systems that are more commercial in nature and in larger numbers, however, makes non-repairable accumulators both financially and environmentally unsound.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,714,094 describes a repairable piston accumulator in which the all of the stresses (e.g., axial and hoop) are designed to be sustained by a composite overwrap. As a consequence of making a large enough opening for repairability and maintaining a thin non-load bearing liner (or minimally load bearing liner), the required primary wrap angle of the composite becomes 55 degrees placing some shear stress into the composite fibers. The shear stress is an undesirable condition and requires a second circumferential wrap to compensate for the stress. Thus, while the accumulator is repairable, the design likely fails to give the fatigue characteristics demanded by current and future uses of lightweight hydraulic accumulators.